The Phoinix: Age of Demigods (40 page)

“No, no, this won’t do,” Bre said
shaking her head at her disheveled and out grown
clothing.

Bre snapped her fingers
and her clothes changed into a more form-fitting outfit that
covered
, yet
emphasized her features. She was dressed in a green tunic
with a black leather girdle around her
ribs
. Black leather pants hugged her
long
,
slender
legs
, complete
with grey, knee-high riding boots. Her sword hung
on
her left hip
and
was
sheathed
in a silver scabbard, decorated with diamonds and
sapphires
, and
her wavy brown hair
was
half pinned back with a silver Celtic knot
clip.

Eoghan stood behind her,
studying every inch of her body until Lysandros cleared his
throat
, raising
an eyebrow accusingly. Eoghan blushed and moved next to Bre
so he was not caught staring again.

Breanna laughed at
Eoghan’s awkward appearance then snapped her fingers again,
changing his clothing as well. His normal scruff
replaced his beard.
She
also trimmed his hair to the length she preferred;
short
,
but long
enough to run her fingers through it. He wore a royal blue with
brown leather pants and dark brown boots. His sword
was
sheathed in gold
with sapphires.

“Well, aren’t I fancy?” Eoghan
chuckled as he scrutinized his new look.

“Delightfully fancy,” Leo jested in a
feminine voice then turned around to devour more pork.

Bre pointed her finger at Leo and shot
a bolt of silver light at him, zapping him on the hip.

Leo jumped and
shouted, “Ow!” He rubbed
his side
in pain
. “That’s just not nice! Now that you guys are all pretty,
can we eat now? I’m starving.”

Everyone chuckled and
headed to the fire
:
everyone except Lysandros. He headed to a tent to lie down,
noticeably upset about Alina and Remus. Bre felt his sorrow and it
broke her heart that she could not ease his pain; he had to grieve
on his own terms.

Breanna’s grief was
manageable and
she
knew she had Leora to thank for that. However, losing
both
her parents in the
same month made her nauseous and
her
breathing shallow. She forced
her mind away from the topic to function for the group.

Brian slung an arm around Bre as if he
read her mind. “And how are you doing?”

“I’m alright. It helps
knowing she and father are together and safe in Annwyn.
Besides
,
with her
power I can summon her whenever I want, right?” Bre forced a
smile.

“You need to be careful
with that power. You remember how hard it was to pull Alina back
from that trance when fighting Blythe?” Brian rhetorically
asked with a raised eyebrow
.

I won’t ever need a
reminder of that
, Breanna said in her
mind, talking to herself.

Clearly you
do
, Cole said, watching her from the fire
where he sharpened a dagger to shave his face.

Mother rarely used that
power for a reason, Bre. She could not control
it
, Nik added, already with a bowl of
water and a half-shaven face.

I am not
Mother
, Bre glared at them
and
then playfully stuck
her tongue out.

“
So Bri, how old do you
think we are?” Breanna asked
,
changing the subject before her brothers could
retort.

Brian’s forehead wrinkled
and eyes narrowed contemplatively
.
“Let me see.”

Brian placed two fingers
on the
sides
of
Bre’s and Eoghan’s temples and closed his eyes, “You are both
twenty-one. You’ve aged three years. Congratulations, you can
officially start your own tribe, Eoghan.” Bre and Eoghan shook
their heads while Brian laughed at his own joke. “Let’s go eat.
Tomorrow we will figure out our next step. Tonight, we dine for the
dead.”

Cole waved for Bre to join
them. She sat in between Cole and Nikolaos around the fire. She
picked meat off Cole’s plate as the brothers’ laughed, recounting
funny stories about their parents. Cailean stoked the fire, making
the flames change colors with his powers
.
Before he realized, he
accidently
made
the fire grow too
big and purple sparks flew in his face, causing everyone
to erupt with well-deserved and well needed
laughter
.

Eoghan stood off the side,
watching the gathering until Brian joined him, silently standing
next to him
and
sharing his plate full of pork.

“Come on, out with it. I know you want
to say something,” Eoghan said after a few moments of
silence.

Brian smirked and slung an
arm around Eoghan’s shoulders. “You know me too well, young one. I
want you to know that Elpis is not your daughter. You may have
helped in conceiving her mortal body but she is born of pure magic
from Alina’s blood. I know it is hard to
understand
.
Even
I don’t fully understand it, but do not for one second think she is
your daughter. She will try to use that emotion against you and
Bre. A rift between the two of you is not something we can
afford.”

“Trust me, the day I feel
anything but pure hatred for that…thing, is the day I fall on my
own sword,” Eoghan said
,
disgusted at the thought of having any warm
feelings towards Elpis.

“Good, glad to hear that,”
Brian
said and
patted Eoghan on the back. “Now, what is going on between you
and the future Queen?”

Brian half choked on a piece of pork
and half laughed at the shocked expression on Eoghan’s
face.

“Nothing
.
She is The Queen. It is my duty to protect her and that is
all,” Eoghan said firmly. Brian smirked at the slight, almost
unnoticeable waiver in Eoghan’s voice that usually appeared
when
he
lied.

“Mm hmm,” Brian
smiled,
raising
his eyebrow and
staring
at Eoghan, waiting for the verbal vomit that
generally followed one of his lies.

Eoghan shifted
uncomfortably and rolled his eyes. “Ugh! Fine. I don’t know what is
happening with her
,
or me
,
or
us,
if
there even
is an us. But the fact of the situation remains that we can never
be together. I could never be a king and she could never be
ordinary. So tell me,
where
does that leave us? Her my master and me her
soldier?”

Eoghan’s eyes
pleaded
for Brian to
tell him he was wrong
:
that a relationship was possible somehow. Brian simply
shrugged and
headed
back to the group
. Halfway
there
, he looked over his shoulder and
with a mouth full of pork said, “Everyone has a master. At least
she is a pretty one.”

Eoghan rolled his eyes and
glared at Brian, who continued to chuckle as he sat next to
Cailean. Eoghan sat across from Bre,
purposely
using the flames as
divider. He gazed at Bre through the sparks, caught off guard by
how beautiful she became
with
their instant aging. The flames lit up her
face
,
and the
gold flecks in her hazel eyes sparkled in the firelight. She smiled
back at him and
coyly
hid her face.

Eoghan slowly exhaled as
he forced his eyes away from hers and studied his boots. “There was
no way I
am
going
to survive
this
fight,” he whispered to himself.

* * *

In the morning, Cole and
Leo disappeared on a hunt for breakfast while Cailean picked fruit
and berries. Nikolaos watered and fed the horses
,
Brian rekindled the fire that
extinguished during the night and Lysandros sat next to
him
,
sharpening
his sword and daggers.

Startled
by
a nightmare,
Bre
bolted
up
with sweat dripping down her face
. She
dreamt
of her mother’s murder again, panic
and fear tightening her chest. Unable to control her
breathing
,
a knot
tugged in her stomach
as
an overwhelming feeling of loss consumed her.
Different than a grieving loss, it
felt
like
the loss of something personal. Her
hand flung to her neck, searching for her father's
pendant
. When her
fingers were satisfied running over the cool metal, she ran out of
her tent and immediately searched for Eoghan.
Bre
went to his
tent
,
but he was
not sleeping
.
She
checked by the trees,
because
she knew Eoghan always loved climbing trees, but
he was not there either. She climbed a walnut tree to see if she
could spot him from above, but still there was no sign of
Eoghan.

“Bre, get down from there and come
eat,” Cailean called to her while dividing the fruit for
breakfast.

Bre jumped down, still
nervous that she could not find Eoghan
,
and jogged back to the group. She
had to slow her breathing to at least appear calm for
Cailean.

“If no one else in the
group
is worrying,
then why should I, right?” Bre said to herself, accidently
aloud.

“What was that?” Cailean
asked

“Nothing,” Bre said
quickly
,
hiding
her face and stuffing berries in her mouth.

He is fine, Bre. I’m sure
he will turn up any second now
, Cole
mentally tried to comfort Bre.

“Ha! She doesn’t know if she’s
thinking or speaking anymore,” Leo jested as he returned with
rabbits for breakfast.

Bre shot him a nasty look.

“That’s not
nice
.
Take it
back!” Leo looked genuinely hurt
by Bre’s
psychic insult
.

Bre pouted her lip
sarcastically
and
then stuck out her tongue. Leo snorted and returned to
skinning the rabbits.

Bre sat down next to
Cailean
,
who
threw a raspberry in the air and caught in his mouth. He nudged her
in the ribs
and said
while chewing, “Bet you can’t do that.”

“Oh
yeah
? Watch this
.”
Bre grabbed two berries out of
his hand, and threw them in the air. One fell down into her
mouth
,
but the
other was caught in the mouth of a man standing over
her.

Eoghan smiled down at
Bre
as
he chewed
the raspberry.

Bre sensed Cole’s ‘I told you
so’.

“Good morning, Princess,”
Eoghan said
,
playfully
falling
into Bre as he sat down with a handful of
berries.

“Where were you this morning?” Bre
asked with a hint of annoyance.

“Can’t tell
you
.
It’s a
secret,” Eoghan threw another berry in his mouth then tried to feed
one to Bre.

“Friends don’t keep
secrets
.”
Bre
grabbed an apple out of the pile Cailean
had created and turned
it over in
her hands.

“Friends, huh?” Eoghan
looked down then tilted his head towards Bre to catch her eye. Bre
refused to look away from her apple. Eoghan
nodded
, disappointed.
“Friends it is.”

“Hey, Eoghan, up for a spar?” Brian
called out waving his sword around his arm.

“You got it, Chief!”
Eoghan jumped up and grabbed his sword from his tent. Without
looking back at Bre, he disappeared down the hill
with Brian,
and moments
later, the clanging of swords and the laughter of two comrades
filled the valley.

Cailean nudged Bre in the
ribs again
.
“Come
on, Doll
.
Let’s
go watch and see if we can liven them up a bit with a couple of
tricks I know.” Sparks flew out of his palm and he smirked at Bre
with a crazy
,
playful look that always meant he was up to no
good.